“A Hispanic family showed up two weeks ago with little kids and the 5-year-old had to translate,” Ristem said. “She said, ‘My mom and dad haven’t eaten in two days.’ The parents were going hungry to feed their kids.”

Ristem said she sees the need for food in terms of people and children suffering.

“Our numbers still show that one in six Idahoans suffer from hunger,” Ristem said. “That includes 92,000 children under the age of 18.”

Poverty and the hunger that comes with it are also no strangers to Pocatello Salvation Army Director Brenda Ames. The soup kitchen at the Salvation Army has seen the line for its noon meals six days a week grow from about a dozen people each day to nearly 60.

“These are families with children right now,” Ames said. “Typically they come in here and they’ve lost all household income or only one person has a job and it’s not meeting their needs.”